John was born on February 25, 1833 in Brookville, Franklin County, Indiana, United States. He was the son of Samuel and Sophia (Snell) St. John, and was descended from Matthias St. John who was made a freeman in Dorchester, Massachussets, in 1634.
He acquired a scanty education while he was living on a farm with his family.
St. John was admitted to the bar at Charleston, Illinois, and at the same place. After the Civil War, during which he won the rank of lieutenant-colonel in the 143rd Illinois Regiment, he practised law for a time at Independence, Missouri, but in 1869 removed to Olathe, Kansas.
The woman's crusade, the temperance movement started by Francis Murphy, and the rise of anti-liquor organizations in Kansas produced the moment when a temperance candidate could profit most from his principles, and St. John was elected governor in 1878. At that time he was forty-six years old.
By reason of his oratorical ability and his prestige as governor, he became the leader in the fight for the amendment. In the election of 1880 it was adopted, and he was re-elected. Credit for the adoption of the first constitutional prohibitory amendment in history has ordinarily been assigned more to him than to any other person.
In 1882 he made a fight for a third term, but was defeated, owing mainly to objection to the third term, a reaction against prohibition, credence given to an unsubstantiated charge that he favored railroad corporations, and the jealousy of a number of influential politicians who secretly combined against him. His principle of prohibition, however, was sustained in the election of local officials and the state legislature.
By 1882 St. John had become a character of national significance, largely through his connection with the adoption of constitutional prohibition in Kansas. After his defeat for a third term - the first Republican gubernatorial defeat in Kansas - he was practically expelled from his party, and devoted himself to lecturing on prohibition.
His campaign was centered in New York, in the hope of securing the balance of power in this pivotal state. Grover Cleveland carried the state by a plurality of 1, 149 votes; if the Republicans had carried New York, the electoral vote would have stood 218 for Blaine and 183 for Cleveland.
St. John received 25, 016 votes in New York, and both major parties agreed that his vote was drawn almost exclusively from Republican ranks. For this reason, although any one of a number of factors might have been influential in producing the result in this state, St. John at the time was held responsible for the election of the first Democratic president since the Civil War, and the abuse and vilification heaped upon him by the Republicans knew no bounds. He was the only third party candidate between 1860 and 1912 who could plausibly be credited with turning an election.
His temperance lectures were less in demand, and he turned to mine speculation and real estate, but he was never successful in financial ventures. During his last years he again became popular as a prohibition speaker, and found himself restored to public favor in Kansas.
He died at Olathe, survived by one son, a daughter having died in 1903.
John Pierce St. John was well-known as a member of the Kansas State Senate and as the eighth Governor of Kansas. The outstanding event of his first administration (1879 - 81) was the submission to the electorate of a constitutional amendment prohibiting the manufacture and sale of intoxicating liquor for beverage purposes. His second term was chiefly occupied with a moderately successful attempt to enforce prohibition. The city of St. John, Kansas, is named in his honor.
He made his first appearance in public life as a Republican member of the Kansas Senate of 1873-74, where he worked for strict liquor regulation.
In 1884 he accepted the nomination of the National Prohibition Party for president and drew fifteen times as many votes as any candidate of this party had ever received before. In 1896 he broke with the Prohibition party, and from this time was a free lance in politics.
He was slightly above medium height, well proportioned and vigorous physically, with deep-set, piercing eyes, dark hair, and a rather thin face festooned with a long and drooping but carefully kept moustache.
He learned to hate liquor when his father became a victim of alcoholic drink.
He made an unfortunate marriage with Mary Jane Brewer at the age of nineteen. On March 28, 1861 he married Susan J. Parker, his first wife having secured a divorce.
